Injury Lawyer and Intentional Acts Vs Negligence

How does an injury lawyer know how to determine whether an act was intentional or just negligence? It takes knowledge and experience with the law to decide how to proceed on each case. Every situation and every client requires that an attorney sit down and figure out what type of case to pursue. The difference between intentional and negligent acts is not always easy to spot and the settlements and compensation varies.

Similarities

When a personal injury lawyer takes on a case to deal with either intentional or negligent acts, he or she is acting on behalf of a client that has been personally affected by another event, product, or person. The attorney can seek out compensation based on the damages that a person experienced. It does not matter whether or not the act is determined to be intentional or just negligent for a person to receive some form of compensation.

Both cases require that an attorney prove that an incident negatively affected the client. Then, he must also prove that another person was responsible for the damage. Some cases take place in front of a judge while others are held in front of a jury. From there, if the attorney has proven his point, it will be determined how much compensation the client is entitled to.

Differences

There are differences between intentional and negligent acts when it comes to compensation. Many times, if an injury lawyer can prove that an act was intentional, meaning that a person or company made it a point to cause damage or harm, the compensation is more lucrative. It does require that the attorney actually prove that this was not just an accident or an unintentional situation. This is not always easy.

The injury lawyer needs to prove what was in the mind of the offender when he or she committed the act. It is possible to just ask someone about intentions, but the answer is not always forthcoming. On the other side, if there is anything said or written down, this can make the case easier to prove.

Intentional acts under the law include things like assault and battery, fraud, and false imprisonment. These situations demonstrate that one person negatively affected another on purpose. While it is possible to pick up an insurance policy to cover you if a case is brought up against you, any type of insurance does not cover intentional acts. If this were the case, criminals would be able to purchase a policy and not worry about the consequences of their actions.

Because sometimes there is a fine line between intentional damage and negligence, it is important to retain the services of an injury lawyer that understands those differences. He also needs to understand that each one requires a different approach to the case.

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Business Litigation: Intentional Interference With Contract

Business attorneys must often deal with claims of intentional interference with contract between competitors. Where a breach of contract lawsuit deals with a contract between two parties, a claim of interference with contract deals with a situation where someone who is not a party to the contract is allegedly interfering with that contract.

More specifically, to allege a cause of action for interference with contract, the lawsuit must show that there is a valid contract between the plaintiff and a third party, that the defendant (the alleged interferer) knew about the contract, that the defendant did something intentionally to induce a breach or disrupt the contract, that an actual breach of disruption occurred, and that the plaintiff was damaged by the interference.

In California there is no cause of action for negligent interference with contract (although see the California Supreme Court's recognition of a cause of action for negligent interference with prospective economic advantage). The acts must be intentional, but the case law does not require that the defendant act with specific intent to interfere. Case law provides that the tort will apply if the actor "knows that the interference is certain or substantially certain to occur as a result of his action. The rule applies... to an interference that is incidental to the actor's independent purpose and desire but known to him to be a necessary consequence of his action."

Of course, the mere fact that interference occurs does not end the analysis. The fact that the interference was not desired and purely incidental (as opposed to intentional) can be used to defend against an intentional interference claim. However, if the action is found to be intentional, notice that the tort does not require that the defendant actually even know who the plaintiff is-just that the defendant knew about a contract and intentionally interfered with it.

This business tort also does not require that the contract actually end up being breached (which is labeled a tort to induce breach of contract). Intentional interference with contract can still be brought if the contract is not breached but plaintiff's performance is made more costly or burdensome.

Because it is a claim of interference with someone else's contract, a party to the contract cannot be sued for interference with his own contract. That may be a simple breach of contract action. The distinction is important because intentional interference with contract is a business tort and tort remedies can be more onerous than contractual damages.

A party can defend against a claim for interference with contract through certain privileges or justifications. The court engages in a balancing test to determine the nature of the actor's conduct, the actor's motive, the interests of those being interfered with, the interests being advanced by the actor, the social interests of each party, the proximity or remoteness of the actor's conduct to the interference and the relationship of the parties. Overall, a court looks at the reasonableness of the conduct. The various privileges and justifications, and their applicability, have to be the subject of their own article.

Needless to say these privileges and justifications and the factual balancing that is involved in determining their applicability makes business litigation over an allegation of intentional interference with contract claim very fact intensive. Business litigation attorneys have to investigate these claims, analyze the case law and come up with their best analysis, but whether c company did intentionally interfere with another's contract is rarely a cut and dry issue.

Business Litigation Attorney Los Angeles Laine T. Wagenseller handles commercial litigation on behalf of companies throughout Southern California. Mr. Wagenseller is the founder of Wagenseller Law Firm, a real estate and business litigation firm in downtown Los Angeles. For more articles on business litigation subjects, visit http://www.wagensellerlaw.com/. To contact Mr. Wagenseller, call (213) 996-8338 or email ltw@wagensellerlaw.com.

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